Post #783431 by HotelCharlieEcho on Fri, Jan 26, 2018 4:53 PM

Swanky, to the extent the answer to the "first tiki mug" question interests folks like me who are also interested in the origins of Polynesian pop-culture/pre-tiki ceramic drinking vessels more generally, I find your information about the Hawaiian Potters' Guild fascinating.

According to some sources, certain members of the Gantt family not only worked for the Guild, but actually owned it by 1940. Apologies for the ham-fisted citation in advance, but the statement appears to have been made in an issue of Ceramics: Art and Perception somewhere between issues 11 and 14 in an article on Toshiko Takaezu. I don't have the issue, but the snippet shows up in a Google Book search here: https://books.google.com/books?id=JiNVAAAAMAAJ&q=%22hawaiian+potters'+guild%22&dq=%22hawaiian+potters'+guild%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiH3eiJ8fbYAhVH72MKHczzDWYQ6AEIPDAF. "In 1940, she [Takaezu] moved to her sister's home in Honolulu and began working for the Gantt family who owned the Hawaiian Potters' Guild in Monoa."

Any guesses as to the date of the brochure you posted? As far as I can tell the Guild was founded between 1931 and 1936 (around the time the first Don the Beachcomber opened), and was active into the 1940s. I wonder what those vessels referred to in the brochure looked like? The "Zombie gal" (which they specifically say was made for Don's drink), "Devil beer mugs" and "Hula-girl glasses" all sound pretty cool. Would love to see what they looked like.